Proceedings of the BAAL Conference 2007
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
A Theory-based System for the Analysis of Lexical
Relations in Text
In his widely acclaimed book, Patterns of Lexis in
Text, Hoey (1991) proposed that different forms of
lexical repetition combine to organize text. His study
has provided evidence that instances of lexical
cohesion mark points of reference, or „links‟, between
sentences. The same research has also demonstrated
that the observation of repetition patterns in text allows
for, among other things, the identification of both
adjacent and non-adjacent sentences which have a
significant semantic connection.
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in
Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
University of Calgary
[email protected]
Recent studies in the area of written discourse analysis
in English (Batista, 2006; MacMillan, 2006,
MacMillan, 2007) suggest that paraphrasing skills,
marked by the observance of instances of lexical
cohesion in text, play an essential role in the concept of
effective reading reflected on the TOEFL® (Test of
English as a Foreign Language), a largely accepted
standardized English proficiency test designed to
determine whether the language skills of international
students applying to North American colleges or
universities are adequate for enrollment into the
selected programs of study.
MacMillan (2007) has devised a modified version of
Hoey‟s (1991) repetition model and applied it to the
identification of bonds between reading comprehension
questions and specific portions of the related passages.
The resulting taxonomy, represented in Figure 1,
below, involves seven types of lexical relations, as well
as one set of cohesive devices which are not lexical in
nature but which also make it possible for repetition to
take place.
In reporting on the results of the analysis of 608 fixedresponse TOEFL® reading comprehension items using
an adapted version of Hoey‟s (1991) lexical repetition
model, MacMillan (2007) concluded that all question
types on the test, in its paper-based, computer-based,
and internet-based versions, involve the identification
of different forms of lexical repetition connecting
question stems and/or correct options to specific
sentences in the related passages.
Figure 1: Link Taxonomy
LINK TAXONOMY
Lexical Relations

Simple
Lexical Repetition

Complex

Simple
Synonymy

Complex

Simple
Antonymy

Complex
Superordinate Repetition
Hyponymic Repetition
Co-Reference
Labeling
Non-lexical Relations

By pro-forms
Substitution

By  (Ellipsis)
In another application of Hoey‟s (1991) repetition
model, Károly (1999) demonstrated that a modified
version of the same analytical system could be used to
evaluate the quality of written discourse structure in
argumentative texts produced by advanced EFL
learners. Results of her analysis indicated that highrated and low-rated essays differ significantly in a
number of variables related to both the types of
cohesive devices employed by learners and the
combination of semantic connections between
sentences.
The manner in which each of these types of links
contributes to the identification of semantic bonds
between reading comprehension questions and related
passages will now be examined.
The aim of this paper is to propose the use of an
adapted version of the lexical cohesive analytical
system used in MacMillan (2007) for the practice of
academic reading skills in electronically delivered
programs. More specifically, this paper introduces elearning tasks that target the development of
paraphrasing skills by means of the identification of
different categories of lexical repetition in text.
The first type of link considered in MacMillan (2007),
„lexical repetition‟, may be classified as either simple
or complex. „Simple lexical repetition‟ (henceforth,
„simple repetition‟) involves the exact repetition of a
lexical item (e.g.: drug – drug), or its repetition by
means of an inflected form (e.g.: drug – drugs).
„Complex lexical repetition‟ (henceforth „complex
repetition‟), on the other hand, involves the repetition
of an item by means of a derived from (e.g.: drug (n.) –
drugged (adj.)), or by the same form with a different
grammatical function (e.g.: drug (n.) – drug (v.)).
The following section of this paper will offer a brief
outline of the lexical cohesive analytical system used in
MacMillan (2007) and its proposed simplified model
for use in EAP reading lessons. This will be followed
by a detailed description of suggested online reading
activities focusing on two basic categories of
paraphrasing, namely context-independent and contextbound paraphrasing. The concluding section will
discuss means of applying the same strategies to the
practice of academic writing skills.
The second category of repetition, „synonymy‟,
involves the repetition of the idea represented by a
given lexical item, rather than its form. In common
with lexical repetition, instances of synonymy may be
either simple or complex. „Simple synonymy‟ occurs
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Proceedings of the BAAL Conference 2007
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
whenever “a lexical item may substitute for another in
context without loss or gain in specificity and with no
discernible change in meaning” (Hoey, 1991, p. 62).
An example of „simple synonymy‟ is the repetition of
the meaning in the term able in one sentence by means
of the term apt in a different sentence. In its complex
form, synonymy involves items which represent
equivalent ideas, but which are part of different word
classes. An example of „complex synonymy‟ is the
repetition of the meaning in the term able in one
sentence by means of the term aptitude in another.
than not formed by deictics, such as this, that or such,
followed by a head noun, which is unspecific in nature,
such as Halliday and Hasan‟s (1976) „general nouns‟
(p. 27). Francis (1994) added that a large number of
retrospective label head nouns are “metalinguistic in
the sense that they label a stretch of discourse as being
a particular type of language” (p. 89, original
emphasis). An example of a labeling link is the use of
the phrase this question to refer back to a direct or
indirect interrogation within a previous sentence.
Finally, Substitution is the only type of link in this
taxonomy which is realized by grammatical members
of closed system whose function is to stand in, or
substitute for, lexical items. It should be noted that the
term substitution is here used following Hoey (1991)
and Quirk (1972). Most of the items accounted for by
this category are described by Halliday and Hasan
(1976) as instances of reference. Citing Emmott
(1989), Hoey (1991) justified his choice by arguing
that “a pronoun, for example, does not refer to an
earlier item, but co-refers with the earlier item to
something real or imaginary outside the text” (p. 71).
However, the differences between Halliday and
Hasan‟s reference and Hoey‟s substitution go beyond
the realm of terminology. In addition to personal and
demonstrative pronouns, Halliday and Hasan (1976)
include demonstrative adjectives, modifiers, and the
definite article the in their reference category. Because
the function of these additional items is largely to draw
attention to the givenness of one or more lexical items,
rather than to stand in for them, they have not been
included in Hoey‟s (1991) categorization, or the
present study. One exception in this regard is the use of
the demonstrative adjectives this, that, these, and those
to modify a noun which is not a lexical repetition or a
paraphrase of a previous item. These instances fall
under the labeling category discussed above.
The third type of lexical relation considered in
MacMillan (2007), „antonymy‟, is also classified as
either simple or complex. „Simple antonymy‟ involves
the repetition of the concept of a given item by means
of an antonymous term of the same word class. An
example of „simple antonymy‟ is the repetition of
concept in the term violent in one sentence by means of
the contrasting term peaceable in another. „Complex
antonymy,‟ on the other hand, involves antonymous
terms which are part of different word classes, such as
violent and peace. Note that, following Jones (2002),
the term antonymy is here used in “its broader sense,
referring to any pair of words which could intuitively
be recognized as „opposites‟” (p.1). Therefore, the
antonymy category includes not only gradable pairs,
such as cold – hot, but also non-gradable pairs, such as
dead – alive, the latter being a category which certain
linguists, including Lyons (1977) and Cruse (1986)
have termed „opposites.‟
„Superordinate‟ and „hyponymic repetition‟ account for
cases when two items are interpreted as having
identical referents. These links occur when the items
sharing the same referent are connected by a lexical
relation of class membership. „Superordinate
repetition‟ involves a general term which may be said
to designate a class of which the earlier item is a
member. One example of „superordinate repetition‟ is
the repetition of the term painting in one sentence as
the more general term art in a subsequent sentence.
Conversely, hyponymic repetition involves a specific
term which may be said to be a member of, or included
in, the class designated by the earlier item forming the
link. Therefore, an example of „hyponymyic repetition‟
is the use of the more specific term painting to refer
back to the term art in a previous sentence.
Halliday and Hasan (1976) used the term „substitutes‟
to refer to a small class of items, some of which are
also included in Hoey‟s (1991) categorization. One of
these items is one, when used as a nominal head
accompanied by modifiers, as in the first one and
another one. When used by itself, however, one would
not count as a Substitution link. Rather, it would be
treated as accompanying Ellipsis (discussed below).
Other items accounted for in the substitution category
as presented in this paper are do (it/the
same/this/likewise/so); the clausal so and not, as in they
said so and they said not; and (the) same, when not
accompanying an item (repeated or otherwise).
Co-reference links, in common with „superordinate‟
and „hyponymic repetition,‟ involve items sharing the
same referent. Unlike those, however, co-reference
items do not hold a lexical relation, and, thus, the link
between them is context-dependent. An example of a
co-reference link is the repetition of Elizabeth II in one
sentence as the Queen in a subsequent sentence.
One final instance of substitution considered in this
study is „ellipsis‟, where Ø substitutes for a lexical
item. Consider the following example drawn from the
sample text in Hoey (1991, p. 227). Sentences are
numbered for ease of reference.
The „labeling‟ category is based on Francis‟ (1994)
description of „retrospective labels‟. The term
„retrospective label‟ refers to a nominal group which
encapsulates a stretch of discourse and indicates to the
reader how it should be interpreted. The same author
(op.cit.) pointed out that these labels are more often
[1] It is possible to predict three reactions every time a
major company, like Barclays Bank, decides to
withdraw from the South African economy.
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Proceedings of the BAAL Conference 2007
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
[2] The first Ø is that the disinvesting firm will insist
that its aim is primarily economic and only secondarily
political because few businessmen want to admit to
yielding to political pressures.
number of links which bond with one or more
sentences in the excerpt indicated in the question,
namely Paragraph 2. Paragraph 2 is formed by
Sentences 6 to 12. The statement formed by the correct
option, Option b, bonds with one of the sentences in
this excerpt, Sentence 12, by means of as many as nine
links, as demonstrated below. Individual links are
numbered for ease of reference.
Here, Ø, stands in for reaction and acts as the second
member of the substitution link formed with reactions,
in Sentence 1.
[b] The curvature1 of the earth2 may be disregarded3
in plane-table surveys4 of cities because it does not
affect accuracy5 in determining6 the distance
between7 specific points8 in small areas9.
[12] For such small areas9, exact5 positions8 can be
determined6 relative to each other7 Ø4 without
considering3 the size and shape1 of the total earth2.
1. curvature  shape (Superordinate Repetition)
2. earth  earth (Simple Repetition)
3. disregarded  without considering (Simple
Synonymy)
4. plane-table surveys  Ø> [in plane table surveys]
(Ellipsis)
5. accuracy  exact (Complex Synonymy)
6. determining  determined (Complex Repetition)
7. distance between  relative to each other
(Complex Synonymy)
8. specific points  positions (Simple Synonymy)
9. small areas  small areas (Simple Repetition)
(MacMillan, 2007, p. 85)
Hoey (1991) argued that substitution items, “while
connecting certain sentences, obscure the connections
between other sentences” (p.42). Thus, in order to
allow for a thorough analysis to be carried out, all
sentences in the text must be effectively rendered
contextually more neutral. This may be done by
replacing non-lexical cohesive features, as well as
ellipsis, with the full forms for which they are a
shorthand. To exemplify, consider the following
sentence (Hoey, 1991, p. 95) followed by its adapted,
formatted version (Hoey, 1991, p. 251) with full forms
in square brackets:
[26] If it were correct, the writers of political theory
would need to be themselves past masters in the art or
governing, and statesmen would need to apprentice
themselves to them in order to learn their job.
[26] If <it> [the entire conception of politics as an art
and of the political philosopher as the teacher of it]
were correct, the writers of political theory would need
to be themselves past masters in the art or governing,
and statesmen would need to apprentice themselves to
them in order to learn their job.
Hoey‟s (1991) repetition model, on which the link
taxonomy discussed above is mainly based, was
originally devised to identify points of reference
between sentences within mainstream, non-narrative
texts. Hoey (1991) has established three links as the
minimal number of references for two sentences to be
considered significantly connected, or bonded.
However, this number may vary depending on the
relative length and lexical density of the text in
question, the cut-off point being marked by an above
average degree of repetition cases.
MacMillan (2007) has applied the link taxonomy
discussed above to the identification of semantic
bonds, marked by an above average number of lexical
links, between reading comprehension test items,
specific sentences in the related passages, and correct
options. Consider the following example, based on the
introduction to Chapter 2 of Geodesy for the Layman,
maintained by the U.S Defense Mapping Agency and
available from the National Geodetic Survey web page:
www.ngs.noaa.gov.
Once links are recorded and bonds between sentences
are established, nets, or sets of bonded sentences, can
be identified. These nets allow for the identification of
marginal and central sentences, as well as topic
opening and topic-closing sentences. Marginal
sentences are characterized by a very low number of
bonds formed with other sentences. Conversely, central
sentences are marked by an above average number of
bonds formed with other sentences. Finally, topicopening sentences are characterized by forming most
or all of their bonds with subsequent sentences,
whereas topic-closing sentences form most or all of
their bonds with previous sentences.
According to paragraph 2, why may the curvature of
the earth be disregarded in plane-table surveys of
cities?
a. Because the Pythagorean spherical concept is not
suitable for simple mathematical calculations.
b. Because it does not affect accuracy in
determining the relative distance between specific
points in small areas.
c. Because a flat surface is an acceptable
representation of the true figure of the earth in
geodetic surveys.
d. Because a plane surface provides a more exact
figure in astronomical and navigational
computations than the sphere does.
(MacMillan, 2007, p. 84)
One possible means of simplifying this lexical
cohesion analytical model for use in reading lessons is
by interpreting it as a passive paraphrasing system. The
eight different instances of lexical cohesion represented
in the link taxonomy may be grouped into two basic
categories of paraphrase, namely context-independent
and context-bound paraphrase, as shown in Figure 2.
Each of the options can be joined to the question to
form a statement the validity of which can be assessed
by means of the identification of a considerable
73
Proceedings of the BAAL Conference 2007
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
activity within the text
independent paraphrases.
Figure 2: Paraphrasing System
PARAPHRASING SYSTEM
Categories of Paraphrase
Context Simple Repetition
independent
 Complex Repetition
 Simple Synonymy
 Simple Antonymy
 Superordinate Repetition
 Hyponymic Repetition
Context-bound
 Complex Synonymy
 Complex Antonymy
 Co-Reference
 Labeling
 Substitution
 Ellipsis
introducing
context-
Figure 3: Learning Activity within Reading Text 1
Look at the following paragraph1.
Can you pinpoint in which other sentences the
highlighted portion in Sentence 1 reoccurs in the
paragraph?
What forms of repetition are involved?
[1] In technical and encyclopaedic literature one can
find somewhat different information about when the
word "psychology" was formed and who was the
first to use it. [2] In the main psychological and
philosophical dictionaries, textbooks, and leading
world encyclopaedias there are for the most part
three different opinions of the origin of this term
which, as the word denoting scientific or
philosophic dealing with the phenomena of psychic
(subjective, conscious) life, has now come into very
wide use. [3] All the three names connected with the
formation of the term "psychology" are the names of
the people of German origin from the 16th century.
[4] Two of them are of little significance: Rudolf
Göckel and Otto Casmann, while the third is very
famous and generally known: Filip Melanchton.
Context-independent paraphrases are marked by
instances of lexical cohesion which are more readily
observed and only marginally text-bound, i.e., the
connection between the lexical links involved is often
not limited to the context in which they figure in the
text. Instances of repetition of this kind include: Simple
and Complex Repetition, Simple Synonymy, Simple
Antonymy, as well as Superordinate and Hyponymic
Repetition.
Show all reoccurrences
Context-bound paraphrases are marked by types of
links which are inherently text-bound and which
require the identification of either low-level or highlevel text-based inference. Low-level text-based
inferences involve the identification of referents, which
are often represented by instances of Substitution,
Ellipsis, Co-Reference, and Labeling. High-level
inferences, on the other hand, involve deductions
stemming from information implied but not directly
stated in the passage. These are often represented by
instances of Complex Synonymy and Complex
Antonymy.
Here, learners are led to identify clusters of lexical
repetition and think about the individual instances of
cohesion creating the context-independent paraphrases.
Feedback lines appear as learners click on selected
portions of the passage. Feedback generated by
incorrect choices includes: “Sorry, this is not the
correct choice. Try to find excepts that combine
alternatives for each of the individual words in the
highlighted phrase.” Correct choices, namely “the
origin of this term,” in Sentence 2, and “the formation
of the term „psychology‟,” in Sentence 3, generate the
following feedback lines, respectively: “Excellent job!
Here, when … was formed reoccurs as the origin, and
the word psychology as this term;” “Very good! Here,
was formed reoccurs as the formation, and the word
‘psychology’ as the term ‘psychology’.” The button
“show all reoccurrences” highlights the correct choices
and provides the individual instances of cohesion
forming the paraphrases as shown in their respective
feedback lines.
The following section will demonstrate how this
paraphrasing system may be applied to the
development of academic reading skills by means of
interactive online activities.
Interactive strategies for the practice of
reading skills in online EAP programs
This section features suggestions to incorporate
interactivity into the teaching and practice of passive
paraphrasing skills in electronically delivered courses.
Suggested content and tasks are presented as forming a
full unit in an introductory level EAP program. It is
here assumed that learners have been previously
guided through the basics of learner-interface
interaction.
The reading texts are followed by content review and
practice through asynchronous delivery. In this portion
of the lesson, knowledge construction is encouraged by
means of learner-learner interaction in a discussion
board. Figure 4 shows the task used to generate the
discussion. The full passage used in this task may be
found in the Appendix.
The unit contains two reading texts, each of which
introducing the basic features of one of the
paraphrasing modes discussed in Section 2, above.
Cognitive activity is encouraged by means of learnercontent interaction. Figure 3 includes an example of an
1
The passage used in this task consists of an excerpt taken from
Krstic‟s (1964) Marko Marulic -- The Author of the Term
"Psychology".
74
Proceedings of the BAAL Conference 2007
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
Figure 4: Guidelines for Discussion about Reading
Task
Look at the following reading comprehension
question based on the Figure of the earth passage.
practice of active paraphrasing skills, by means of the
creation of semantic equivalence using appropriate
forms of lexical cohesion.
As a first example, Figure 5 shows how the reading
activity in Figure 3 may be modified to target the
production of appropriate forms of lexical repetition.
Identify the correct option and justify your
choice by a) mentioning which sentence(s) in the
passage it paraphrases, and b) pointing out the
individual semantic connections involved.
Figure 5: Guidelines for Discussion about Writing
Activity
Make sure to comment on responses posted by
your classmates.
Rewrite the
unnecessary
paraphrases.
According to paragraph 2, why may the curvature of
the earth be disregarded in plane-table surveys of
cities?
a. Because the Pythagorean spherical concept
is not suitable for simple mathematical
calculations.
b. Because it does not affect accuracy in
determining the relative distance between
specific points in small areas.
c. Because a flat surface is an acceptable
representation of the true figure of the earth
in geodetic surveys.
d. Because a plane surface provides a more
exact figure in astronomical and
navigational computations than the sphere
does.
following paragraph replacing
repetition
with
appropriate
Make sure to comment on responses posted by
classmates.
[1] In technical and encyclopaedic literature one can
find somewhat different information about when the
word "psychology" was formed and who was the first
to use the word “psychology”. [2] In the main
psychological
and
philosophical
dictionaries,
textbooks, and leading world encyclopaedias there are
for the most part three different opinions of the origin
of the word “psychology,” which, as the word
denoting scientific or philosophic dealing with the
phenomena of psychic (subjective, conscious) life, has
now come into very wide use. [3] All the three names
connected with the formation of the word
"psychology" are the names of the people of German
origin from the 16th century. [4] Two of the three
names connected with the formation of the word
"psychology" are of little significance: Rudolf Göckel
and Otto Casmann, while the third the name
connected with the formation of the word
"psychology" is very famous and generally known:
Filip Melanchton.
In this task, learners are encouraged to identify which
sentence(s) in the passage are central to the reading
comprehension question, as demonstrated in Section 2,
above. The instructor‟s role in this discussion is to
prompt learners to express whether they agree with
responses posted and to offer suggestions to peers.
Some feedback may be provided, if necessary.
However, in order not to hinder further discussion, the
instructor should refrain from identifying the correct
option at this point.
Here, selected items in the original text have been
replaced with multiple instances of simple repetition.
In this new activity, learners are required to replace
redundant forms with appropriate paraphrases and then
discuss their choices with their peers. After learners
have posted their responses on the discussion board,
the instructor may present the original text for
comparison. However, students should be encouraged
to see the original paraphrases not as „the key‟ to the
exercise, but as examples of possible appropriate
semantic connections in that specific context.
The unit is concluded with an online quiz, or short
fixed-response reading comprehension test. The first
question on the quiz is the same used in the discussion
board. When clicking on the correct option, learners
are shown a feedback line similar to those used in the
learning activity shown in Figure 3, above. The
remaining questions should focus on the identification
of context-independent paraphrases in order to give
learners further opportunities to practice the
recognition of less obvious instances of cohesion.
Campbell (1990, cited in Jordan, 1997, p. 171) has
pointed out that an important aspect of academic
writing is “the ability to integrate information from
previous researchers in relevant areas of study.” Leki
and Carson (1994) have, in turn, recommended that,
EAP writing classes encourage learners to integrate
personal opinions and experiences with external
sources of information. The interactive strategies
discussed in this paper may be used to design writing
tasks in which learners practice the use of appropriate
The section that follows will briefly discuss how the
paraphrasing strategies exemplified above may be
applied to the practice of academic reading skills.
Applying the Practice of Paraphrasing to
the Development of Academic Writing
Skills
The practice of passive paraphrasing skills, as
discussed in Section 3, above, may be followed by the
75
Proceedings of the BAAL Conference 2007
paraphrases when
different sources.
integrating
Practicing Paraphrasing Skills in Online EAP Reading Programs
Fabiana M. MacMillan, PhD
information
Cherry Campbell. 1990. Writing with others‟ words:
using background reading text in academic
compositions. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second
Language Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
D Alan Cruse. 1986. Lexical semantics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Defense Mapping Agency. 1984. Geodesy for the
layman (DMA TR 80-003). Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
Catherine Emmott. 1989. Reading between the lines:
Building a comprehensive model of participant
reference in real narrative. PhD thesis,
University of Birmingham.
Gill Francis. 1994. Labelling discourse: An aspect of
nominal-group lexical cohesion. In Coulthard,
M. (Ed.), Advances in written text analysis, pp.
83-101. New York: Routledge.
Micheal A. K. Halliday & Ruquaiya Hasan. 1976.
Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Michael Hoey. 1991. Patterns of lexis in text. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Steven Jones. 2002. Antonymy: A corpus-based
perspective. London: Routledge.
Robert R Jordan. 1997. English for Academic
Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Krystyna Károly. 1999. Lexical repetition in text.
Berlin: Peter Lang.
Kruno Krstic. 1964. Marko Marulic -- The Author of
the Term "Psychology". Acta Instituti
Psychologici Universitatis Zagrabiensis, 36, 713.
Ilona Leki & Joan G Carson. 1994. Students‟
perceptions of EAP writing instruction and
writing needs across disciplines. TESOL
Quarterly, 28 (1).
John Lyons. 1977. Semantics. 2 vols. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Fabiana M. MacMillan. 2006. Lexical patterns in the
reading comprehension section of the TOEFL®
test. Revista do GEL, 3, 143-172.
Fabiana M. MacMillan. 2007. The Role of Lexical
Cohesion in the Assessment of EFL Reading
Proficiency. Arizona Working Papers in Second
Language Acquisition and Teaching, 14, pp7593.
Randolph Quirk. 1972. A grammar of contemporary
English. London: Longman.
from
For instance, two short passages discussing opposing
views on one specific subject may be used as the basis
for essay writing. Directions should lead learners to
synthesize information from both passages to support a
given argument. Finally, in pairs, students may be
encouraged to comment on each other‟s use of
paraphrase to a) refer to information taken from the
reading passages, and b) contribute to the cohesiveness
of their essays.
Conclusion
This paper has introduced a paraphrasing system based
on the identification of different categories of lexical
repetition in text. Different interactive e-learning tasks
have been proposed as a means of applying
paraphrasing strategies to the development of academic
reading skills. Finally, suggestions were made as to
how to adapt the use of the same strategies to the
practice of academic writing skills.
Appendix -Figure of the Earth
The expression "figure of the earth" has various
meanings in geodesy according to the way it is used
and the precision with which the earth's size and shape
is to be defined. The actual topographic surface is most
apparent with its variety of land forms and water areas.
This is, in fact, the surface on which actual earth
measurements are made. It is not suitable, however, for
exact mathematical computations because the formulas
which would be required to take the irregularities into
account would necessitate a prohibitive amount of
computations. The topographic surface is generally the
concern of topographers and hydrographers.
The Pythagorean spherical concept offers a simple
surface which is mathematically easy to deal with.
Many astronomical and navigational computations use
it as a surface representing the earth. While the sphere
is a close approximation of the true figure of the earth
and satisfactory for many purposes, to the geodesists
interested in the measurement of long distancesspanning continents and oceans-a more exact figure is
necessary. The idea of flat earth, however, is still
acceptable for surveys of small areas. Plane-table
surveys are made for relatively small areas and no
account is taken of the curvature of the earth. A survey
of a city would likely be computed as though the earth
were a plane surface the size of the city. For such small
areas, exact positions can be determined relative to
each other without considering the size and shape of
the total earth.
References
Fabiana M. Batista. 2006. Lexical patterns in the
reading comprehension section of the TOEFL®
test: An investigation of the role of lexical
cohesion in fixed-response EFL reading
comprehension
questions.
PhD
thesis,
Fluminense Federal University.
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